Did a guts-o-rectomy on my comp, thoughts...

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Did a guts-o-rectomy on my comp, thoughts...

Basically I haven't upgraded my pc in a while. I'm doing a switch to Intel from my several builds of AMD over the 6 years I've been building my own pcs. Here's my current setup (probably one of the better setups for a 939/AGP motherboard

I know, I'm just saying I'm "future proofing" if there is any sense of the word with today's technology as far as applications go. I'm primarily a console gamer but often play a few odd games on the pc. I'm thinking of investing in Sins of the Solar Empire, but I'm not an avid pc gamer.

I built a new PC for myself about 2 months ago, to replace my [really] old P3-based computer. I also wanted something that could "age" well. I also went with an Intel CPU (of course), but I chose a dual core instead of a quad. Even with two cores, I don't see them often being fully loaded (I must say, I don't do any video editing or multimedia intensive stuff). I still believe that, right now, except if you have specific needs, you are better suited with a dual-core CPU instead of a quad. At the end, you are likely to get more "performance" for a cheaper price. But I may upgrade for a "big" quad (Q9650?), maybe in a couple of years, depending on price and usefulness.

I also went with 4 GB of RAM (2x2 GB). I think it's a wise choice, since it's quite cheap anyway, and for this I really like to be on the safe side. And one day or later, I'll buy another 2x2GB. So in 10 years, it will still be enough. I guess.

Anyway. Here's my setup

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400

Gigabyte EP35-DS3R (not the wisest choice since I ended up not using RAID)

Well your old PC is more than fast enough for Spore and Starcraft 2. If you wan't future proof, then save your money, and wait a year, that machine has plenty left in it.

But if you insist on upgrading now, drop the 8800GT, get the new HD4850 GDDR3, same price much better performance. Also, Gigabyte is much higher quality than Asus, i have their P35 mobo GA-EP35-DS3, it's fantastic, get the P45 model of that board, from what i've heard it is amazing.

But other than that it looks fine to me, you won't be disappointed with that Corsair PSU, i've got the VX450, very high quality! Same goes for the Arctic Freezer Pro 7, i have that installed in my old rig, which is constantly hovering at 29 degrees, which i think is quite impressive since it's a netburst chip.

Oh, and these are my specs, got it about 2 months ago, cost me 4400DKK, which at the current exchange rate is 915$ or 590 Euros.

I was also going to suggest a better Graphics card (although frankly I'm not very wise on the things). If you could shell a little more - maybe by waiting a couple more months - I'd probably get one of the 9 series. Maybe the 9800 GTX+ which is about to be launched... around $250.

My system is known on a recent thread. The upgrade planned for this Christmas to finalize the desktop is a Intel C2D T7600, and just a tad small improvement on the Geforce 7300 SE so that I can run Celestia with 64Kb textures at acceptable frame rates. Will also have to update the motherboard.

Anyways, I'd probably drop the cooling and put the money on the graphics card, indigo.